Victoria
Victoria has always had a passion for fitness and well-being. Growing up in Chicago, she performed in dance, ran track, and was a gymnastics enthusiast. She graduated from high school as a Licensed Practical Nurse through the Chicago Board of Education and Little Company of Mary Hospital. After receiving her LPN license, she worked as a nurse at Holy Cross Hospital in Chicago.
Later, she completed the NASM certification program at the Academy of Sports Medicine in Chicago and began working as a personal trainer and aerobics instructor. Encouraged to compete in fitness, she went on to win the overall title of Ms. Illinois in the Natural Bodybuilding Championships in 1991.
In 2001, she took her very first yoga class, and her passion shifted as she explored different styles of yoga around Chicago. She studied and practiced traditional Hot Bikram Yoga to heal her body from previous injuries. Most importantly, she noticed how yoga helped her balance life and motherhood, finding more peace within herself.
She received her first Yoga Teacher Certification at CorePower Yoga in Chicago in 2009, later attending Ashtanga/Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training at Center for Yoga in Detroit, Michigan, in 2011. It was there that she was introduced to Ashtanga Yoga by her first teacher, Jonny Kest. Her training was rooted in Ashtanga and a powerful Vinyasa-style sequence.
Each morning, her teacher held a class called “Follow the Yogi,” where students gathered at 5:30 AM to join him as he practiced the Ashtanga Primary Series, calling out the posture names in Sanskrit. It was an unconventional way to be introduced to Ashtanga, but after practicing daily for six weeks, she became eager to learn more.
During her training, Jonny Kest also held Vipassana meditation sessions after each morning class. Victoria immersed herself in this style of meditation, which deepened her practice. She continues Vipassana as her daily meditation practice to this day.
After returning from this training, she began to study Ashtanga as her primary practice. She started teaching the Ashtanga short-form sequence at Lifetime Fitness in Orland Park, IL, once a week—a class she still teaches today.
From 2010 to 2012, she served as a Lifetime Fitness YTT Facilitator (E-RYT 200), leading four 200-hour Yoga Teacher Trainings. Between 2013 and 2015, she attended various Ashtanga intensives and trainings at Miami Life Center in Florida, studying under Kino MacGregor, Tim Feldmann, and Day Christensen. Victoria considers Kino MacGregor her most influential yoga teacher and continues to study with her in person every year.
She also attended Ashtanga intensives at Moksha Yoga and Yogaview in Chicago with Alexis Bauer, as well as intensives with David Swenson and Vinyasa yoga studies under Janet Stone. In June 2016, she completed the 250-hour YTT at 105F Hot Yoga of Chicago in Costa Rica and received her certification to teach Traditional Hot 26&2 under the guidance of her teacher, Gianna Purcell.
Victoria has been a yoga teacher and practitioner for 22 years, teaching at various studios in Chicago and the southwest suburbs. In 2020, during the pandemic, she co-founded her own studio, YogaLife Center, in downtown Mokena, IL. In 2024, she became the sole owner of YLC.
She has built an expanded yoga program to help people of all backgrounds take better care of themselves, alongside many other dedicated yoga teachers. Victoria currently leads the YLC Ashtanga Mysore program, teaches guided Primary Series classes, Hot 26&2 classes, Fundamentals classes, private instruction, and leads intensives and workshops.
She encourages her students to think of yoga as a continuous life practice. She believes the infinite wisdom of yoga is available to all who are willing to step on the mat and give it a try.
Practice with love. Practice what you feel. And do the work to heal.
